11-27-2019, 08:04 PM
9:30, Headquarters of the Bureau of External Affairs
Laeralsford, Laeral
"Hey, Wu?" a voice called through the office door. "Your new partner's here."
"Send them in," Wu said. He set down the file folder he'd been carrying as he paced around his office, and shut his laptop screen. His office was a small one, but it was private- a privilege of his two decades of service. The Bureau of External Affairs, Laeral's intelligence agency, was headquartered in a classical house in central Laeralsford, about two centuries old and without any central heating in the winter. Wu had already started taking a space heater to work.
The office door opened, revealing the broader office space outside, and a slight young woman standing in the doorway. To Wu's eyes, she looked mixed-race, with the slight epicanthic folds showing some Rén ancestor in the close family. She had dark blonde hair and a blithe expression on her face as she took in the cramped office. A small desk, with a laptop. A filing cabinet, and folders lying on the desk, alongside an empty takeout tray with a pair of chopsticks and a few stray grains of rice. There were a few pictures on the walls, and a small shrine with a statuette of some stern-faced Minjian saint wielding a staff or spear.
"I'm Joseph Wu," Wu said, extending a hand for her to shake. "You can call me Wu, or Joseph, just not Joe." He was an older Rén man, maybe in his forties, with a slight beard and a firm stance as he stood.
"A pleasure to meet you," his new partner said. She had a slight rural accent, sounding as if she'd come from a rural province in the southeast. "I'm Espoir Landais."
"Have you been briefed on our assignment?" Wu asked.
"Not quite," Espoir said. "I know something about Auroras..."
"I'll be briefing everyone in a moment," Wu said. "There's more of us- I think six teams of two agents each, and support staff."
"Are you in charge?" Espoir asked. "Of the whole mission, I mean."
Wu shrugged. "I just learned about this an hour ago. It seems the higher-ups don't want much word of this getting out. I'm commander in the field, but my direct supervisor has oversight of the whole operation."
"So...will we be overseeing the other five teams?" Espoir asked.
Wu snorted. "Hell no. I'm a field agent. I don't like to spend any more time in here than I have to. No, I intend for us to be out in the field, tracking leads and chasing down Kerlians." He turned back to one of the folders on his desk. "You're new, aren't you? How many deployments have you been on?"
"None," Espoir said. "This is my first real assignment."
"Do you know why you were assigned to me?" Wu asked. "I was told you had some sort of skill with language?"
"I do," Espoir said. "It'd be easier to show you than to tell you. But I'm good with accents."
"So you can impersonate voices?" Wu asked. "Can you do- I don't know- a Kvaskm accent?"
"This one's from a miner in southeastern Kvask," Espoir said. If Wu had his eyes closed, he wouldn't have believed that the voice was coming from the same woman he'd just been talking to. "And this one's from the southwest, near the border with Lauchenoiria."
"Praise the Divine," Wu said. "That's a talent. Can you do Kerlian?"
"I can do a rural Kerlian farmer, an urban Kerlian woman, or a Grapevale aristocrat's voice," Espoir said. She smiled. "I picked that last one up from watching propaganda broadcasts. I call it the 'Kerlian Councillor'."
Wu nodded, seeing the applications of the skill.
"But I can also hear the differences between people's voices," Espoir said. "Most people can't. But if you know what to listen for, you can tell things about them from the sound of their voice. Like you. It's clear that French isn't your first language. You were born somewhere in western Laeral, clearly. Mandarin was your first language, I can tell from the way you say your word endings. But you hide it pretty well." She furrowed her brow. "If I had to guess, you've been living among predominantly French speakers for the past ten years or so at least. But before then, you were raised in an urban area in western Laeral. Your voice suggests Riverlands, so I'd say somewhere from Gaolan to Hanshui, around that region."
Wu exhaled softly. "I'm from Hanshui," he said. "And I grew up speaking Mandarin. That's really a skill you have, Mademoiselle Landais."
"The trainers think I might be able to identify a Kerlian accent," Espoir said. "Even if an Aurora has been living in Laeral for years, they'll still have spent years as a child in Kerlile. Even if they've tried to suppress it, they'll still have Kerlian tones that I might be able to find."
Wu reached out and shook her hand again, a hearty handshake. "I feel in time we'll be damn glad to have you with us."
Laeralsford, Laeral
"Hey, Wu?" a voice called through the office door. "Your new partner's here."
"Send them in," Wu said. He set down the file folder he'd been carrying as he paced around his office, and shut his laptop screen. His office was a small one, but it was private- a privilege of his two decades of service. The Bureau of External Affairs, Laeral's intelligence agency, was headquartered in a classical house in central Laeralsford, about two centuries old and without any central heating in the winter. Wu had already started taking a space heater to work.
The office door opened, revealing the broader office space outside, and a slight young woman standing in the doorway. To Wu's eyes, she looked mixed-race, with the slight epicanthic folds showing some Rén ancestor in the close family. She had dark blonde hair and a blithe expression on her face as she took in the cramped office. A small desk, with a laptop. A filing cabinet, and folders lying on the desk, alongside an empty takeout tray with a pair of chopsticks and a few stray grains of rice. There were a few pictures on the walls, and a small shrine with a statuette of some stern-faced Minjian saint wielding a staff or spear.
"I'm Joseph Wu," Wu said, extending a hand for her to shake. "You can call me Wu, or Joseph, just not Joe." He was an older Rén man, maybe in his forties, with a slight beard and a firm stance as he stood.
"A pleasure to meet you," his new partner said. She had a slight rural accent, sounding as if she'd come from a rural province in the southeast. "I'm Espoir Landais."
"Have you been briefed on our assignment?" Wu asked.
"Not quite," Espoir said. "I know something about Auroras..."
"I'll be briefing everyone in a moment," Wu said. "There's more of us- I think six teams of two agents each, and support staff."
"Are you in charge?" Espoir asked. "Of the whole mission, I mean."
Wu shrugged. "I just learned about this an hour ago. It seems the higher-ups don't want much word of this getting out. I'm commander in the field, but my direct supervisor has oversight of the whole operation."
"So...will we be overseeing the other five teams?" Espoir asked.
Wu snorted. "Hell no. I'm a field agent. I don't like to spend any more time in here than I have to. No, I intend for us to be out in the field, tracking leads and chasing down Kerlians." He turned back to one of the folders on his desk. "You're new, aren't you? How many deployments have you been on?"
"None," Espoir said. "This is my first real assignment."
"Do you know why you were assigned to me?" Wu asked. "I was told you had some sort of skill with language?"
"I do," Espoir said. "It'd be easier to show you than to tell you. But I'm good with accents."
"So you can impersonate voices?" Wu asked. "Can you do- I don't know- a Kvaskm accent?"
"This one's from a miner in southeastern Kvask," Espoir said. If Wu had his eyes closed, he wouldn't have believed that the voice was coming from the same woman he'd just been talking to. "And this one's from the southwest, near the border with Lauchenoiria."
"Praise the Divine," Wu said. "That's a talent. Can you do Kerlian?"
"I can do a rural Kerlian farmer, an urban Kerlian woman, or a Grapevale aristocrat's voice," Espoir said. She smiled. "I picked that last one up from watching propaganda broadcasts. I call it the 'Kerlian Councillor'."
Wu nodded, seeing the applications of the skill.
"But I can also hear the differences between people's voices," Espoir said. "Most people can't. But if you know what to listen for, you can tell things about them from the sound of their voice. Like you. It's clear that French isn't your first language. You were born somewhere in western Laeral, clearly. Mandarin was your first language, I can tell from the way you say your word endings. But you hide it pretty well." She furrowed her brow. "If I had to guess, you've been living among predominantly French speakers for the past ten years or so at least. But before then, you were raised in an urban area in western Laeral. Your voice suggests Riverlands, so I'd say somewhere from Gaolan to Hanshui, around that region."
Wu exhaled softly. "I'm from Hanshui," he said. "And I grew up speaking Mandarin. That's really a skill you have, Mademoiselle Landais."
"The trainers think I might be able to identify a Kerlian accent," Espoir said. "Even if an Aurora has been living in Laeral for years, they'll still have spent years as a child in Kerlile. Even if they've tried to suppress it, they'll still have Kerlian tones that I might be able to find."
Wu reached out and shook her hand again, a hearty handshake. "I feel in time we'll be damn glad to have you with us."